Julia Harriette Johnston (1849–1919) was a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

teacher, author, and musician who wrote the lyrics to the song, " Grace Greater Than All Our Sin".

Biography

Johnston was born on January 21, 1849, in Salineville, Ohio, United States, but lived in

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town. Gettysburg is home to th ...

most of the first six years of her life, while her father pastored a church there. At the age of six she moved with her family to

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

where her father was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Peoria. Her mother and grandmother were poets, and Julia Johnston originally wrote verse under the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

, "Juniata." In addition to authoring over 500 hymns, Johnston worked as a Sunday school superintendent and teacher for over forty years and served as president of the Presbyterian Missionary Society. Johnston wrote the lyrics to " Grace Greater Than All Our Sin" and Daniel B. Towner (1850 – 1919) wrote the music. In 1911, the song was published in ''Hymns Tried and True''. The song describes the Christian idea of grace and justification by faith articulated in Paul's Letter to the Romans in Verses 5:1-2 and 14-16. She died in

on March 6, 1919, and was buried there.

Books authored

''School of the Master''
(1880)
''Bright Threads''
(1897)
''Indian and Spanish Neighbors''
(1905)
''Fifty Missionary Heroes''
(1913)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Julia H 1849 births 1919 deaths American women hymnwriters American Christian hymnwriters Christian music songwriters People from Salineville, Ohio People from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania People from Peoria, Illinois 19th-century American women musicians